Young Shubman Gill drove, pulled and cut magisterially in an unbeaten 62-ball 70 as Kolkata Knight Riders overwhelmed Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.
Gill and Eoin Morgan (42 not out in 29 balls) complemented a disciplined bowling effort, helping the Knight Riders open their account with a convincing win.
The 21-year-old opener anchored the chase perfectly as Morgan counterattacked to seal the issue in KKR's favour with two overs to spare, after their opening game debacle.
Opting to bat, Sunrisers Hyderabad never got going after Pat Cummins (1/19) and rookie spinner Varun Chakravarthy (1/25) removed the opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner respectively, and were restricted to a below-par 142/4.
After an explosive start by KKR, the bowling-heavy SRH did make some inroads with Khaleel Ahmed and T Natarajan dismissing Sunil Narine (0) and Nitish Rana (26 off 13).
Rashid Khan got into the act straightway, trapping KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik for a duck.
But a relaxed and composed Gill was in complete control of his innings and paced it brilliantly on way to his fifth IPL fifty.
Reigning World Cup-winning skipper Morgan played the proper supporting role before joining the party by smacking Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a huge six in the 15th over to tilt the match in favour of KKR.
Earlier, KKR looked more intent and aggressive with their approach, having brought in Narine and Cummins up front with the new ball.
Having drawn flak for bowling short against Mumbai Indians, the IPL's most-expensive overseas buy Cummins smartly altered his length and bowled Jonny Bairstow with an absolute ripper to give KKR the first breakthrough.
In his second-coming, architect-turned-spinner Chakravarthy dismissed a well-set Warner (36 off 30) in a very soft manner for his maiden IPL wicket, giving KKR the massive breakthrough.
The Australian left-hander, who got out cheaply against Royal Challengers Bangalore, looked to create a mark with some clean hits, but a lapse in concentration did him in and he spooned an easy catch to Chakravarthy.
The two wickets meant that SRH couldn't step up the momentum and at the halfway mark, at 61 for 2 , the run-rate was just above six.
Manish Pandey returned to form at No. 3 with a 38-ball 51 and together with Wriddhiman Saha (30 off 31 balls), tried to repair the damage but the duo were dismissed at the death and SRH lacked the final touch to settle for a seemingly below-par total.
In hindsight, sending Saha before Mohammad Nabi seemed like a tactical blunder because the Indian wicketkeeper wasted plenty of deliveries in making 30 off 31.
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